Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe annoyed by 'double standards' in Tour de France

Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe had a perilous day in the Tour de France on Sunday. Team leader Primoz Roglic and his lieutenants were forced into a defensive position on the gravel sections around Troyes, but the Slovenian ultimately finished neatly in the group with the other general classification contenders.

Roglic lost contact with the peloton on the second gravel section, just as UAE-Team Emirates and Visma | Lease a Bike accelerated. "I’m too old to get nervous, so I stayed calm. Everyone did a good job, and now it's up to us to look ahead. It was a new challenge and fun to be a part of," he replied in his characteristic style to FloBikes.

In the team car, there was more stress, according to team boss Ralph Denk on the team's podcast. "The relief is great because we didn't lose any time to the other favorites. But we were on the defensive for the entire race because we were poorly positioned on the first sections, which cost us a lot of energy and some men. If you start badly, you can't regroup. We need to analyze where the problem was: if Primoz didn’t stay with the domestiques, it's his fault. But if they weren't positioned properly, then it's on them."

Read more below the photo.

Remco Evenepoel and Tadej Pogacar tried multiple times to put Jonas Vingegaard under pressure, but Roglic was absent from that game. "We were lucky that the other three didn't continue pushing, as Primoz had already used up a lot of energy closing the gap," said Denk. "I'm not sure if it was Visma | Lease a Bike's direct goal to hurt Primoz; I think they just wanted to make the race tough. They certainly did a much better job than we did."

Not only did Roglic have a tough day, but co-leader Aleksandr Vlasov also had a hard fall. The climber got back on his bike visibly groggy. "It seems he made a mistake and ended up in the ditch. He was bleeding from his face and elbow, but it's his ankle that worries us the most. He wasn't walking well, so we need to conduct further investigations," Denk provided a medical update.

Read more below the video.

Before the stage, there was already discontent about including the gravel route in the Tour, which the CEO of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe addressed again afterward. "We brought in staff and cars, as well as support personnel from Belgium and Slovenia, as if it were Paris-Roubaix. I'm a bit bothered by the organizer's double standards. They want to make the race 'greener,' but this stage has little to do with sustainability."

Moderately positive interim balance for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe

Finally, the team leader and the team boss summed up the first nine days of the Tour de France. "I am happy and proud. I give everything, and the guys ahead of me are stronger at the moment. But there are still two weeks to go. If I stay fit and healthy, there will be more opportunities. I'm also not obsessed with the result; it's about getting the most out of myself," said Roglic.

Denk expects that much can still happen. "Primoz's time trial was very good, which was confirmed by the data. We would have liked to be closer to yellow, but after nine days, we're still in the race, and that's positive. Next week, we head to the Pyrenees, and things can shake up again."